We stayed at the Diagonal Mar for two nights before going on the first of two cruises. We then stayed at the Hilton Barcelona for two nights and are finishing the second night of another two-night stay at the Diagonal before embarking on a transatlantic cruise to Miami.

FWIW here are some observations as of November 2013.

First, be aware that the Hilton Barcelona is located on Avenida Diagonal, while the Hilton Diagonal is located on Passeig Del Taulat, no doubt leading to confusion sometimes between tourists and even honest cab drivers (we're not fans of Barcelona cabbies).

They are both modern facilities with friendly employees and pleasant lounges. We were treated very well as Diamonds at both properties. Both hotels made our rooms available by 10:00 a.m. when we arrived and have also cheerfully agreed to 2:00 p.m. checkouts when asked.

Hilton Barcelona

The Hilton Barcelona is a little closer to the Metro, the closest stop being Maria Cristina about two blocks away on Diagonal. Its evening lounge offerings are significantly superior to those of the Diagonal Mar, including a pleasant variety of hot and cold tapas, and hard liquor, e.g. Beefeater's Gin, for those who wish it, along with the usual beer and wines during the 6:00-8:30 p.m. Happy Hour. We were also offered the alternatives of eating the buffet breakfast in the lounge or in the ground-floor restaurant. The restaurant buffet is quite decent, although not outstanding in our opinions.

Our room was smallish but pleasant. It appeared to be a handicapped-accessible room (judging by the position of light switches), possibly the result of an early check-in. Perhaps that is why there is no bathtub but a large shower. Unlike the Diagonal, our room also included a Keurig-style coffee machine with three pods for each of us, a great way to start the day.

Hilton Diagonal Mar

The Hilton Diagonal Mar placed us on our first stay in a beautiful corner mini-suite with fabulous window views including expansive ocean vistas. We put in a polite request "if possible" for one of the rooms ending in "20" (1920, 2120, etc.). The hotel again kindly gave us one on our second stay, although Mrs. Fredd reminds me that we had splurged on an ocean-view room in any case.

The large bathroom includes a separate shower and a large soaker-style tub, and a small separate alcove (no door) for the toilet and bidet.

The Diagonal Mar is also quite close to a Metro stop, Maresme Forum. The following is complicated but it's the the only way I can describe cutting right through the shopping mall while going between Metro and hotel: You take the Metro exit to "Prim" Street, rather than Diagonal, turning back and walking past the exit stairs once you have climbed them. You then turn left into a wide walkway between apartment buildings as soon as possible and you will be walking directly toward an entry to the large Diagonal Centre Mall across a street with a pedestrian light. You enter the mall, head right, go up one escalator, and exit to the left in the area of the restaurants. You will be in a spacious patio area and will see the hotel. You walk across the patio and down the outside escalator (if it's working) or the flight of stairs and across a street with a pedestrian light. Once we mastered that shortcut, it's probably about as close to the Metro as is the Hilton Barcelona.

The large supermarket in this mall was useful and convenient for buying wine and other necessities for our cruises. I gather from previous posts that there's a supermarket near the Hilton Barcelona as well but we had no need for it so didn't bother to look.

The Diagonal Mar lounge Happy Hour is currently running 6:00-8:00 p.m. and the tapas are okay but not of the same variety or quality as those at the Hilton Barcelona. No hard liquor, but a couple of different beers, including Heineken, and decent enough cava, white, and red wine are readily available. The exterior terrace is gorgeous when the weather is decent (Barcelona has been rainy the past two days, although we only opened our umbrella a few times on an extensive outing today).

Breakfast was offered to us in the lounge only and is okay at best - nothing more than adequate.

For us retired leisure travelers either hotel would be fine. We bought four-day Metro passes (just under 25 Euros each) and with plenty of time on our hands have used our passes to see more of Barcelona on our first multi-day visit than we ever have before. We even trundled our roll-aboards with us as we transferred between hotels via the Metro without problems (although be aware a lot of Metro stations only have escalators going up and it's stairs going down, along with major walks at times when transferring).

I hope these details may be useful for somebody trying to choose between the two properties, or learning how to get to them via public transit. It will at least jog our memories the next time we visit Barcelona.